All the sweetest nature is enclosed in honey! A food product that we have learned from time immemorial to appreciate and that we owe to the work of the bees that produce it starting from the collection of the nectar of the flowers up to the transformation into, in fact, a sweet and golden fluid that is honey.
Bees produce honey as a backup food for the hive and in fact this is collected, stored and preserved for the most difficult moments of the year such as winter when the flowers are not available and the bees cannot fly due to the cold.
Honey composition
Honey contains many nutrients and many active ingredients that promote health. In particular, it is composed of water, sugars such as fructose, glucose and maltose, but also vitamins and many enzymes such as diastase and invertase.
It is also packed with mineral salts such as calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium and sulfates. Finally, it contains many pigments, organic acids, tannins and other aromatic substances that have many beneficial functions for our health.
Better to prefer honey to sugar
Honey has a very sweet taste and is really appreciated for this characteristic, also because it brings energy to the body.
The main composition of honey, as we have seen, is essentially formed by the presence of simple sugars and in particular fructose is the main ingredient.
This sugar is well metabolized by the body and does not lead to very high blood sugar spikes but releases energy in a more modulated and scalar way.
Conversely, the common simple sugar (sucrose) which is the main component of white cooking sugar produces very high blood sugar spikes and can put stress on the body to produce insulin.
For this reason we can prefer honey and replace it with white cooking sugar, also benefiting our health as well as for the figure.
In fact, honey is preferable for slimming diets and for those suffering from diabetes to white sugar even if the quantity must remain limited. In fact, in the case of diabetics, however, the presence of glucose in honey still leads to blood sugar peaks and this must be kept under extreme control in cases of diabetes.
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Can children eat honey?
Honey is a much appreciated food due to its sweet taste and moreover it is completely natural given its origin that does not require any transformation.
Honey is therefore recommended for children and adolescents as it provides energy and acts as a support for the health of the body strengthening the muscles and the immune system.
On the other hand though the use of honey is not recommended for very young children precisely because their immune system is still immature and not ready to react to any bacteria or toxins that may be present in honey.
The main danger it is the presence of Botox which can be found in glass honey jars and which can lead the child to severe food poisoning.
Generally these toxins or bacteria can contaminate honey during the honey extraction process, for potting or even for transporting honey.
Sportsmen choose honey
Even for those who do sports, the choice of eating honey is highly recommended because releases energy ready for use and in a completely natural and balanced way.
Both when we are in training and before, during or after a competition, honey is preferred as a food. Also in this case the ownership of fortifying muscles, increasing physical endurance and even helping to recover energy after intense and prolonged efforts.
Many athletes, even at high levels such as climber Edmond Hillary who was the first to climb Everest, use honey during their activities, whether they are short-term or even days long.
Prefer honey when health goes down ...
Honey has many health properties and is therefore preferred whenever we are in poor physical condition. For example, honey helps to fortify the immune system and it is a natural anti-inflammatory, for this reason it is used as a remedy or with the risk of seasonal illnesses such as colds, flu, coughs, phlegm and other respiratory problems.
Honey soothes the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract and helps healing with a healing action of the tissues. Furthermore honey detoxifies the liver, is an excellent antibacterial when taken on an empty stomach and still reduces bad cholesterol levels as well as being heart-friendly.
Even the brain has beneficial effects when we eat honey so much that improves memory and relaxes the nervous system. Honey is used in the dose of a spoon in a cup of herbal tea to drink before going to sleep in order to promote sleep.
Finally, honey it is very rich in antioxidants which are used to fight free radicals responsible for cellular aging therefore eating honey also keeps us younger.
All these activities are present when we eat honey: one or two tablespoons a day may be enough to take advantage of these benefits. The best time for eat it in the morning for breakfast so that it will give us more charge and energy during the day or we can choose to eat honey in the evening to cheer our sleep and recharge our batteries for the next day.
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